US cell-based meat business Upside Foods is to set up its first “large-scale” factory.
The California-based business is selling its cultivated meat in restaurants after receiving regulatory approval in June.
Yesterday (14 September), the company announced its plans for a new facility, a sign of its belief in the prospects for the nascent industry.
The 187,000-square-foot plant will be located in Glenview in Illinois. Upside Foods said the first product to be made at the site will be cell-cultivated chicken, “with plans to expand to other species and whole-textured formats in the future”.
In a statement, Upside Foods said the facility will have an “initial capacity to produce millions of pounds of cultivated meat products per year and the potential to expand to over 30m pounds”.
Just Food has asked Upside Foods when it will start building the plant – and when the site will make its first products.
In June, the US Department of Agriculture cleared cell-based chicken from Upside Foods – and from a second company, Good Meat – for sale.
At the time, Upside Foods said its first product to hit the market would be a “whole-textured chicken product that is over 99% cultivated chicken cells”.
It was to be sold in “limited quantities through select restaurant partners”, the first of which is a Michelin-starred restaurant in San Francisco.
Just Food has asked for confirmation of where the product is currently available.
The company has attracted investment from US meat giants Tyson Foods and Cargill. It has raised more than $600m to date.
